


Before Midnight

by hiriki



Category: Free!
Genre: Boyfriends, Cutesy, Dorks in Love, Fluff, Jealousy, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-24
Updated: 2013-12-24
Packaged: 2018-01-05 21:00:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,521
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1098542
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hiriki/pseuds/hiriki
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Post-series. It's New Year's Eve, and Rin thinks Haruka's acting a little weird. Maybe it's just a boyfriend thing - they're kinda new to this whole boyfriend business, after all.  (you asked for jealous!Haru and oblivious!Rin, so here you go, darling! I hope you have a wonderful Christmas <33)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Before Midnight

**Author's Note:**

  * For [apenchantforhappiness](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=apenchantforhappiness).



The nice thing about New Year’s Eve was pretty much everything. Nice food, friends and pointless talking? That was good. Really good.

The bad thing was when your boyfriend kept staring at you in a very complex way without saying a single word.

“He’s staring _again_.”

Rin’s voice was a tiny whisper in the noise environment, but Makoto managed to listen to him anyway; nothing escaped his motherly ears, apparently.

He smiled at Rin for the tenth time.

“Well, isn’t it only natural? You guys are going out after all.” The last bit was muttered hastily, as if Makoto feared that voicing such things would bring chaos to the room.

“Yeah, but that’s the problem. He never stared at me like that before. It’s… _weird_.”

“Is it? I don’t think so.” Taking a sip from his drink, Makoto smiled at Haruka; from the other side of the table, the boy stopped staring at him and glared at his own legs instead. “Maybe he wants to talk to you and doesn’t know how to start it.”

“What the hell? He’s not shy like that.”

“Then go ahead and speak to him instead.”

A low grumble came from Rin, and he tried to find a comfortable position on the hard wooden floor.

Shit, Haruka was staring _again_.

“B-but what if… what if it’s not a good thing?”

“Huh?”

“What if he wants to break up?”

The words were muttered in an angsty tone, and from where he was sitting, Makoto could see that Rin was trying to occupy his sweaty hands with a soda can. He pursed his lips nervously, and his friend wondered if he was about to cry.

“Don’t worry. I don’t think that’s the case.” Makoto smiled. _Again._ What the fuck.

“How do you know? And how can you smile? This is a serious situation, stop smiling.” He glared at Makoto.

“Haha, sorry. I’m not trying to belittle your pain. It’s just… Haruka is my friend since forever, Rin. He always tells me stuff. If he wanted to break up with you, I’m sure he’d have said something to me or-“

“Oh? He tells you _stuff_ , huh?” Rin raised an eyebrow at him. “I bet he doesn’t tell you the stuff that comes out of his mouth when we’re-“ He stopped abruptly and stared at Makoto, as if he was finally noticing him there. The blush on his cheeks was so intense, and, for a moment, Rin wanted to die. “U-Uh. N-nevermind.”

“Y-Yeah.” A small, awkward laughter came from Makoto, and he was furiously searching for another conversational topic on his head when Haruka popped at his side, holding an empty can on a hand and studying the space between Makoto and Rin with cold eyes. “Oh! Hey, Haruka.”

He made a small noise of acknowledgement at the same time that Rin made a nervous sound that resembled a dying weasel.

“Do you want to sit with us? It’ll be time to light the fireworks soon.” The invitation came from Makoto, accompanied by his usual smile. _Oh, the sit-here-with-mommy smile_. That would’ve been the thought crossing Rin’s mind if he wasn’t dying slowly because of Haruka’s cold presence.

“No.” The answer was short and cold. And very Haruka-ish. “Rin.”

“Oh. Uh. Um. Yes?” He was blushing and he had no idea why. Perhaps there was something attractive about Haruka’s cold glare. _Shit_.

“I want to talk.” He just kept staring. “Not here, though.”

“Oh. Yeah. Sure. Yeah.” Rin was a little ball of nervousness, and the attitude didn’t exactly match his athletic build.

He got up and followed Haruka, not before glancing in desperation at Makoto, who, predictably, simply smiled (and annoyed the hell out of Rin’s nervous head).

As he and Haruka exited the room, the loud sounds of laughter and conversations between Rei, Nagisa, Gou and Makoto got muffled, playing in the back of Rin’s head as a painful reminder that there was something _very_ wrong with Haruka, who was now focused on dragging him out of the universe, apparently, since they were aready outside the house, surrounded by the happy lights of the New Year’s Eve sky.

“Hey. Hey!” Rin called, noticed that Haruka had no intention of stop walking. He grabbed Haruka by the hand and stopped him, and, thankfully, his hand wasn’t slapped away. That, at least, was a good sign. “Where the heck are we going?”

Without uttering a word, Haruka simply turned around and stared at him. And stared. And stared. His big, inscrutable eyes were as mysterious as always – Rin couldn’t tell if his boyfriend was admiring him, or glaring at him, or simply lost in thoughts. All he knew is that it was making him nervous.

“What? You’re freaking me out here! What is it?”

Haruka remained silent for the next few seconds. Noticing that he was still holding his hand firmly between his sweaty fingers, Rin quickly let go of him and stared back. He wanted a challenge? He would have a challenge.

Except that Rin couldn’t hold Haruka’s gaze for five seconds without blushing since they started dating.

When the faint blush started to show up on Rin’s cheeks, Haruka finally spoke.

“You were calling _that guy_ from Samezuka earlier, weren’t you?”

“Uh. _That guy_?”

“Nitori. Ai.” His voice, his eyes – he was being cold again. What.

“Oh. Yeah, I called him.”

“What for?”

“Why do you care?” Rin raised his eyebrows.

The answer had an unexpected effect – at first, Haruka looked hurt, not painfully wounded or sad, but the Haruka way of looking hurt: his eyes twitched a little and he retracted himself slightly. Then came the anger – swift and sharp, that anger who only showed up on his eyes, something that only Rin would notice.

“I shouldn’t.” He muttered, and his voice was so cold and _hurt_ that it made Rin want to slap himself a thousand times, for whatever crime he had just committed.

“No, I didn’t- I- damn.” He sighed and rubbed his temples. “He got on the wrong train and didn’t know how to get back on track to his house. He called me first, but I missed his call. So I called him. He asked for help and I tried to help him, but he sucks at directions. Like, a lot.” The remembrance was enough to make Rin feel tired. “…And that’s why I ended up glued on the phone all afternoon.”

Haruka listened to the explanation with a neutral expression. Rin still hadn’t a clue of what was happening, so he decided to ask:

“Why are you asking this?”

“What about Makoto?” The question was thrown at him with no hesitation; the way that Haruka promptly ignored his previous question made Rin growl.

“What about him?” Rin couldn’t help but sound annoyed.

“You were talking to him earlier. A lot. And not to me.”

“Because you were creeping me out, staring at me and not saying a word!” The pitch of Rin’s voice unintentionally became a little higher. “And now you’re asking all these crazy questions!”

“I was just curious.” His voice was back to his usual neutral, quiet tone.

“Well, your curiosity is hella weird!”

There was still something hurting inside of him – something that Rin couldn’t quite put his finger on, but he knew it was there, only a little bit out of his reach. It pained him to see Haruka like that, and not being able to do anything to ease it was enough to drive him mad. He reached out to his boyfriend but, before his hand could touch Haruka’s cheek, the boy was already turning back to the house.

“Let’s go back. The others will need help with the fireworks.”

“Wait- Haruka. What’s wrong? Just tell me.”

He didn’t receive any answer, but Haruka allowed Rin to hold his hand as they walked back home.

He didn’t hold Rin’s hand back, though, and it was Rin’s turn to feel a little hurt.

 

* * *

 

“Is he acting weird with you too?”

“Huh?” Gou stared confusedly at her brother. She was taking small sips of her drinks and watching Nagisa and Rei play around with fireworks.

“Haruka. He’s acting weird with me.”

“Must be a boyfriend thing.”

“Oh, shut up.” He rolled his eyes. The last thing the Earth needed was to have him blushing in front of his sister. Gou would probably never respect him ever again. “I think he’s weird with Makoto too.”

“Hmm. How weird?”

“Dunno. He looks really pissed and hurt.”

“Does he?” Gou raised her eyebrows. “He looks the same to me. Then again, you have your magical boyfriend eyes. You can see through him better than anyone, I guess.”

“Seriously, stop this.” He sighed desperately Gou laughed, punching him lightly in the arm. “It’s just… he asked me weird questions. About me calling Nitori earlier. And talking to Makoto. It’s like he wants to keep track of the people who talked to me in the last 24 hours. I don’t even know.”

All was said really fast, with Rin barely breathing in between; much to his (displeasing) surprise, Gou was suppressing a giggle when he looked back at her.

“Wha-? Agh, I _knew_ I shouldn’t have talked to you about this. This is terrible. Talking to you about my personal stuff makes me want to drown myself.” She giggled even more, and would’ve spitted her drink on herself if Rin hadn’t took it from her hands. “ _Stop it._ What the hell.”

“I’m- I’m sorry. It’s just- it’s too cute.” She laughed a bit more, and Rin wondered why he couldn’t simply bring himself to smack her in the head.

“Just- ugh. Forgot I said anything.” He was getting up when Gou tugged at his sweater.

“He’s _jealous_.”

“I’m sorry?” A brotherly eyebrow was raised at her.

“Isn’t it obvious? He’s jealous because it’s New Year’s Eve and you haven’t been paying him enough attention.” She tried to sigh and laugh at the same time, and ended up making a weird pig sound that would’ve made Rin laugh if he wasn’t trying to process what Gou just said. “Ah, it’s just so cute. I didn’t know he could act like that.”

“I don’t- I don’t think he can.” Rin furrowed his eyebrows. “I mean- he doesn’t- he doesn’t care, right? He never… never asked me about anything…”

“But he did today.” She smiled playfully. “I’d say he’s not very happy with the idea of you getting all talky with Nitori.”

It was like witnessing the alignment of the planets in the Solar system. Light shined upon him. Suddenly, everything made sense. And, suddenly, everything was so weird, beautiful and awkward. A million butterflies danced on Rin’s stomach, and it was like he was back to the day he confessed to Haruka.

“ _Ohshit_ ”, he muttered too fast to himself, making Gou laugh and let go of his sweater. He’s jealous. He’s jealous. _He’s jealous over me_.

The butterflies were starting a riot inside of his stomach.

“Go after him”, Gou suggested with a soft voice. He knew she was smiling.

“You don’t have to tell me that.”

 

* * *

 

“Rin, you’re squeezing me.”

“Good. You deserve to be squeezed.”

It all had started a few minutes ago. Rin had followed Haruka into his room and, upon finding him lying on bed with the most uninterested, bored face ever, he politely asked:

“Wanna cuddle?”

Haruka responded by making space for him on the bed.

And now they were cuddling. It wasn’t sexual, It wasn’t weird; it was just awkward and really nice, like everything else that happened between them. That’s how things happened between them. Rin liked it. He only hoped that, someday, they’d get over the awkward part.

Someday, he’d be able to stare into Haruka’s sweet gaze without melting and dying and wanting to squeeze him like he was doing now.

“You were jealous, weren’t you?” He blurted out. Simple as that.

Haruka managed to turn around and face him, still trapped between Rin’s arms.

“So what if I was?” His tone was calm and challenging at the same time – Rin loved that. That, and a lot of other stupid things about him.

“Nothing. I just think it’s really cool.”

“Easy to say when you’re not the one feeling jealous.” Haruka muttered as he buried himself into pillows and Rin’s scent.

A big, happy grin was resting on Rin’s lips. He just couldn’t help it.

“You’re so stupid, Haru.”

“I’m not sure if you’re mentally capable enough to tell me that.”

“Oh, shut up. I meant it in a good way.” He squeezed Haruka a bit more between his arms, earning a small sound from him. “You’re stupid for feeling jealous over me. _Me!_ You do remember I was the one who c-confessed to you, right?” He did not just stutter in embarrassment when talking about his confession. Nope. Totally didn’t.

“So what?”

“Well, it means that I like you more than you like me.” He frowned. “Shit, now I’m kinda upset.”

Before he could do anything else, Rin felt Haruka escaping from his arms a little too quickly and easily; he was about to protest when he felt a weight upon him, and, suddenly, Haruka was on top of him, arms resting on each side of Rin’s head. His face was a little too close, and Rin started to have trouble breathing, having Haruka’s lips so close to his, but at the same time, so fucking far away.

“No, it doesn’t.” It took Rin a while to remember what Haruka was talking about. Haruka ignored his red, confused face and just kept talking. “It doesn’t mean it at all. I’m the one who always get jealous. I’m the one who has to see you getting along so well with everyone. Frankly, I’m starting to miss those times when you were pissed with us. At least, I had all of your attention.”

That was probably the longest speech Haruka had ever made in his life, Rin thought lazily. That was a dumb thing to think, he added.

Before he could think anything else, he pressed his lips against Haruka’s hungrily, his chest jumping a little too much.

“Shit, Haru.” They kissed again. “Stop saying nice things.” And again. “-mm. Doesn’t suit you.”

“You don’t get to decide that.” The loud sounds of talk and fireworks coming from the streets caught Haruka’s attention. He glanced at him. “We should go back outside. It’s almost midnight.”

Before he could get up, Rin took a hold of his wrist, and proceeded to blush furiously – and silently – for almost a minute, before saying:

“We can stay here.”

Haruka just stared at him, as quietly and neutral as ever. But Rin knew better than anyone there were a million thoughts and feelings hiding behind that gaze.

“Do you want to?” Haruka’s voice was almost hopeful, and it revived the butterflies on Rin’s stomach, something that usually only happened when they kissed.

“Yes. I-I want too.”

“Good.” Haruka gave him the tiniest, cutest smile, and that was enough.

Rin felt like they could go on cuddling and kissing forever. He wouldn’t really mind.


End file.
